Developing a Practical Tool for Integrating Green Infrastructure into Cost-Effective Stormwater Management Plans
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 2
Abstract
Green infrastructure (GI) practices are an effective means for improving the sustainability of stormwater management. Optimized combinations of GI practices with other management practices, such as detention basins, can maximize performance and cost effectiveness, and simple methods for identifying these combinations will promote more widespread use of GI. We created a spreadsheet-based decision-support tool to help designers to develop cost-effective stormwater management plans that integrate GI practices with detention basins. The hydrologic impact on detention storage of using GI practices is modeled with rainfall-runoff simulations. An optimization model for a detention basin was developed to be used in conjunction with the spreadsheet tool. We applied the tool to a representative case study site for which the actual design and cost estimates of stormwater infrastructure were known. The tool provided realistic results and the case study revealed that successive applications of the tool could easily provide the user with a site design that improved cost-effectiveness. A sensitivity analysis illustrated the critical trade-off relationship between GI costs and detention basin costs.
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Data Availability Statement
The data, models, and code used to create the optimization tool and perform the sensitivity analysis are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The location and design data used in the case study analysis are confidential in nature and may only be provided with permission from the contracting firm that provided the information.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by a USGS 104(b) grant awarded by the Alabama Water Resources Research Institute, Grant #G16AP0037-2019AL195B. The authors thank an anonymous contracting firm for providing case study information.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 2 • February 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 16, 2021
Accepted: Aug 16, 2021
Published online: Nov 16, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 16, 2022
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